Why is Latin used for scientific taxonomy?

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Latin was the lingua franca of scientific work in the West during the Middle Ages, so Western scientists used Latin for naming species of organisms. During the 18th century Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus simplified this practice by creating binomial nomenclature, whereby an organism is identified by genus and species names, both of which are Latinized words.